June 2013
‘Home is where the heart is.’
‘It ain’t a house, it’s a home.’
‘To speak of home in relation to a building
is simply to recognise its harmony with the
things we believe are most important.’
Task: These
sayings suggest that a home can be more than simply a place to live.
Think of a
place you call home.
Discuss the
significance of this place in terms of your culture and your identity.
(20 marks)
June 2012
Tourism appeals to the human imagination. As
an activity it knows no bounds: it is
global and it affects the environment it
occurs in, the people who host it, the economies
it seeks to benefit and the tourists who
consume it as an experience, product and an
element of their lives. (Stephen Page,
Tourism Management: An Introduction)
As a Communication and Culture student,
explore some of the meanings of the
‘tourism
experience’ (going on holiday). (20 marks)
June 2011
When A-level
Communication and Culture was launched in 2008, it was not well
received in
all quarters. Several newspapers, including the Daily Mail, questioned the
legitimacy
of an A-level dealing with popular culture and everyday life. Read the extract
from the
Daily Mail, 26 May 2008, before attempting the task below.
For anyone who spent two years poring over
the intricacies of the War of the Spanish
Succession to scrape an A-level in foreign
history, it may be best to look away now.
You might have felt duty bound in those days
to ration the time you spent shopping,
listening to pop music or discussing dates.
But there is no such problem for today’s
teenagers...because they can get a
qualification in it.
As part of a controversial A-level in
popular culture, pupils will learn about the tradition
of kissing in cinemas and ponder such
questions as ‘is skateboarding better than polo?’.
The qualification, being offered by the
country’s biggest exam board from September,
also entails a study of celebrity body
images and allows pupils to write about clothes
and hairstyles.
One assignment requires them to ‘explore the
relationships between cinema-going and
dating’ with the aid of source material like
The Drifters hit Kissin’ in the Back Row of the
Movies.
Another asks students to describe the
cultural significance of their bedrooms and
friends.
The A-level in ‘communication and culture’
is billed by the Assessment and
Qualifications Alliance as ‘excellent
preparation’ for higher study.
The course spec insists the ‘everyday is
worthy of study’ but critics are concerned it will
lack academic rigour.
They also warn it could help schools
maintain strong league table positions while
sidelining disciplines such as history and
English literature.
Task:
How do you respond, as a student of this AS
level, to the Daily Mail’s attack?
(20 marks)
